Mr. F. D. Finlay.
CONTRADICTING A NEWSPAPER REPORT OF HIS BEING IN A CRITICAL STATE OF HEALTH.
Gad's Hill Place, Higham by Rochester, Kent,
Tuesday, Sept. 3rd, 1867.
This is to certify that the undersigned victim of a periodical paragraph-disease, which usually breaks out once in every seven years (proceeding to England by the overland route to India and per Cunard line to America, where it strikes the base of the Rocky Mountains, and, rebounding to Europe, perishes on the steppes of Russia), is not in a "critical state of health," and has not consulted "eminent surgeons," and never was better in his life, and is not recommended to proceed to the United States for "cessation from literary labour," and has not had so much as a headache for twenty years.
Charles Dickens.
M. Charles Fechter.
"All the Year Round" Office,
Monday, Sept. 16th, 1867.
My dear Fechter,
Going over the prompt-book carefully, I see one change in your part to which (on Lytton's behalf) I positively object, as I am quite certain he would not consent to it. It is highly injudicious besides, as striking out the best known line in the play.
Turn to your part in Act III., the speech beginning